It is near

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

IT’S NEAR

Luke 10:8-12

8 "When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.' 10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11'Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.' 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

NIV

This seems to be a repeat about when they entered a house and either found a man of peace or not, but it has something else as well which we should pay attention to. Jesus tells them if a town welcomes them they were to tell those people that the kingdom of God is near. He also tells them if the town does not welcome them, even though they shake the dust off their feet against them, they are still to tell them the kingdom of God is near. Either way, with a welcomed or non-welcomed attitude of the people, they were to tell them the kingdom of God is near. This serves as our lesson today. We should be telling everyone the kingdom of God is near.  It does not depend on them accepting or welcoming our message or not accepting it. Granted, they were told if they were not welcomed to shake the dust of their feet against them. In those days it was a sign of total disrespect to a certain amount. To the Jews it was a significant act denoting that town or people were impure, profane, and even paganistic and they declined any further contact with them. The point here is that we will also encounter those who will welcome our message about the kingdom of God being near and there will be people who will not welcome our message. We still need to give them the message, but if they do not receive it, refuse it, argue against it, shake the dust off our feet and move on. They have condemned themselves, and their blood is not on our hands. But if we do not bother to tell them the kingdom of God is near, then perhaps their blood is on our hands. We need to be going into those towns. Now as we are not travelers in the sense those seventy were we cannot actually go from town to town before our Lord. But we can in the sense still go before him into all the areas of life. Where we live, where we work and where we play we encounter people, which is unless we only live, work and play in church or with church people. If that is the case then what worth are we to the kingdom, or to telling of the message, the kingdom of God is near? Who would hear it? Only other believers. So we should be going before Jesus and telling everyone, if they accept it, praise God, if not move on. It is more or less similar to not giving that which is holy to the dogs or casting our pearls to the swine, least they trample it under their feet and turn and tear us to pieces. Yet the point, the message of this lesson is we are to tell them all, the kingdom of God is near.